LONDON No prize for guessing who is getting the blame or should that be the credit for creating a new spyware super bug reported to have infected computers throughout the Middle East.
Nice one Israel. Proud of you! a reader posted on the Haaretz newspapers Web site under a report about the most sophisticated cyber-weapon yet unleashed attacking computers in Iran, the West Bank, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
The new virus, called Flame, was identified on Monday by Kaspersky Labs, a security research firm in Moscow.
Worm.Win32.Flame aka #TheFlame is professionally designed to carry out cyber espionage. Learn more: ******/bckKA #malware
Kaspersky Lab (@kaspersky) May 28, 2012
As Nicole Perlroth writes over at the Bits blog: If the reports findings prove to be true, Flame would be the third major Internet weapon to have been discovered since 2010.
An earlier virus, Stuxnet, was used to destroy centrifuges at an Iranian nuclear facility in 2010. The unidentified programmers behind Stuxnet were also credited with devising the Duqu virus, used for reconnaissance.
Moshe Yaalon, Israels vice premier, fuelled speculation of Israeli involvement on Tuesday when he told Army Radio: Whoever sees the Iranian threat as a serious threat would be likely to take different steps, including these, in order to hurt them.
Israel is a country blessed with superior technology, he said, adding: These achievements of ours open up all kinds of possibilities for us.
Iran appeared to be the principal target of the new computer worm, described by Alexander Gostev, Kasperskys head of research, as so big and sophisticated that it redefined the notion of cyberwar and cyberespionage.
Nicole quotes researchers who said the complexity of the super bug, and the geography of its targets, suggested it was the work of a government.
The earlier Stuxnet worm is credited with having slowed down Irans nuclear program, which Israel, the United States and other states believe is geared towards producing a nuclear bomb.
Intelligence and military experts have said the effectiveness of Stuxnet was tested at the Dimona nuclear complex in Israel in a joint U.S.-Israeli effort to undermine the Iranian program.
Kaspersky, which discovered the Flame virus during research on behalf of the International Telecommunication Union, said it had so far found no similarities with Stuxnet and Duqu. However, the Flame malware looks to be another phase in this war, said Eugene Kaspersky, the research labs chief executive.
The International Telecommunication Union is the United Nations agency for information and communications technology. It was acting on reports that computers at Irans oil ministry and its national oil company had been hit with malware that was stealing and deleting information from their systems.
As with Stuxnet and Duqu, no government is likely to put its hand up. But some experts are already convinced about where responsibility lies.
The country that brought us Iranian nuclear assassinations, explosions at Iran missile bases, and Stuxnet, is at it again, wrote Richard Silverstein on Israels liberal Tikun Olam Web site under the headline: Israels new contribution to Middle East cyberwar.
The goal is apparently to infiltrate the computers of individuals in Iran, Israel, Palestine and elsewhere who are engaged in activities that interest Israels secret police, including military intelligence, Mr. Silverstein said, suggesting Israeli intelligence might even be using the worm to spy on its own citizens.
Israel Gets the Blame for Flame Virus - NYTimes.com